Just ranting (again)

The Kantaras trial has had my head spinning for the last week or so. True, the subject of sex, gender, and sexuality is constantly on my brain, but the trial stirs things up a bit.

The more I think about it, the more I see 3 camps.

There's the first camp - People who believe that there are 2 sexes, period. There is Male, and Female. There are Men and women with birth defects, but that doesn't change the fact that they're men and women.

The second camp - There are 3 sexes. There is Male, Female, and Intersexed. You're either Male, Female, or both/neither.

The third camp - (This is where my head is) There is no sex. There are just people who either get assigned or select labels.

It's odd how many Transsexuals and Intersexed individuals fall into the first two camps. I can sort of understand why a Transsexual could. After all, "Trans" means to cross, and in order to cross there has to be a point A and a point B. I feel bad for the Intersexed people who are in the first camp though. They think that they're faulty. At least the Intersexed people in the second camp can claim uniqueness.

Seeing sex, gender and sexuality as a continuum seems to be a concept that simply implodes people's brains. Actually, taking away dichotomies in any area seems to do that. People seem to need a good and evil, a black and white, or at least a yes, no, and maybe. Surpassing 3 options seems to be something that people just can't do.

I guess that I can understand why. My own decreasing ability to define things has me pretty darn nonfunctional. The world is set up to be conducive to people who can easily polarize. It's a little more difficult for people who can see 3. For those who see infinity though, the world is just not very homey.

I use the label "Intersexed" because people need me to. Camp one can pity me as defective, and camp two can appreciate me for being unique. If I just called myself a "normal" person, I'd be dubbed a liar by camp one and not understood in the least by camp two. Problem is, as with any label, defining what that means is impossible. By the books of many, I'm not Intersexed. Intersexed = X, Same as Male = A and Female = B to camp one. The Intersexed people in camp two have 3 clear cut definitions of Male, Female, and Intersexed. In all honesty, I think that's as closed minded as the attitudes of the camp one people.

The biggest problem in all of this, for me, is that I think that you could count the members of camp three on one hand... and that gets a little discouraging after a while. I think that's because camp one and camp two people think that the people in camp three are insane. I don't know that they're wrong... but being insane is just not the easiest way to be. Even if I'm the sane one and everyone else is nuts, it doesn't make a difference. What it boils down to is the fact that the world in which I, the sane one, live is owned and operated by lunatics. What it boils down to is the fact that I can't function... and that's a pretty hungry way to have to live life.